Way to Be, Brook Jacoby

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Last night I was watching the last couple innings of the Reds game and this Reds coach popped up on the screen with dark Batman-looking eyes and a very well-defined face and I was like, “Who the fuck is that dude?”

Turns out it was hitting coach Brook Jacoby, and he still works for the Reds. I thought this dude got traded to Oakland right after Ken Griffey Jr. got shipped to Chicago and before Adam Dunn was moved to Arizona. Jacoby was the last in a long line of hitting coaches that were supposed to help Adam Dunn become more than a Dave Kingman masher/strike-out king. It would have been nice, but that’s just not who Dunn is.

It seems like the only time we ever saw Jacoby was after Dunn struck out four times in a game or Griffey hit three flyouts to right. That guy’s face only got on TV when something bad was happening with the Reds offense. Very little of that could have been his fault, though, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s still here.

But still, when this year’s Reds team struggled early we never saw that guy taking the heat. It was Brandon Phillips batting fourth or Edwin Encarnacion to blame. Of course, Phillips is near the top of the leaderboard in May RBIs, and EE had to take a break due to total suckiness a wrist injury. Things are going better now, but why no love for Brook Jacoby?

Last night, amid Jay Bruce’s three-hit, two-home run, 4 RBI effort, we caught another glimpse of the man hired to keep our young sluggers in line. Bruce is currently hitting .241, but he’s on pace for almost 50 home runs. There’s something about Bruce that makes us believe he won’t be the next Dunn. And if there’s anybody who knows what Bruce needs to avoid, it’s Jacoby.

Maybe Jacoby helped Joey Votto become a potential triple-crown candidate. Maybe Phillips won’t listen to him because he likes his free swinging and mind games. Maybe a right-handed power hitter would help jump start the Reds offense and we’ll never hear about Jacoby again. Who knows? Most of us didn’t even know he was still here anyway.